Lots of TMSL diffs related to "annotations" in my model schema (bim)

[dbeavon3]

I don't like to be OCD, but I review the diffs whenever my dataset/model is changing.  This review happens whenever I'm deploying to production.  By doing my reviews, I have been able to detect accidental & unintentional changes, and stop them before they go to our production environment.  This has helped to avoid breaking the down-stream reports and dashboards.

This review is possible with the help of "TMSL" metadata (aka bim schema).  The "TMSL" metadata can be extracted for the current and prior version of my model, and then I use a diff tool (like windiff) to compare.  

Can someone please share whatever they know about "annotations" in the model?  Is this something that has a material impact on the clients of the model, when connecting to the PBI service?  Here is an example:

... notice that all the "Format" properties are being switched to "PBI_FormatHint".  Whereas the "formatString" listed above the annotations is apparently the same as before.

I should state the obvious...  none of these are intentional changes, and they were made behind my back for reasons that I don't really understand.  I suppose this is the type of thing that should be expected from a tool that targets citizen-developers.

At the very end of the TMSL document, it displays the new "PBIDesktopVersion" that is probably responsible for these changes. (2.112.603.0)

Below is a map showing all the changes in the TMSL.  The same theme is repeated all the way down (annotation changes, where "Format" is replaced with "PBI_FormatHint").

...

Needless to say it looks scary, but on a practical level the changes are probably immaterial.  I googled for "annotations" and "PBI_FormatHint" and so on.  But I wasn't able to find enough information to set my mind at ease.  Can someone please help me unpack these metadata changes, so I can deploy to production (without anticipating any unintended side-effects)?